Prepare each source.
Extract useful structure, preserve versions and record timestamps or page locations. Keep links back to the original material.
Multimodal knowledge
The answer is notalways in a document.
Bring different kinds of evidence into the same search. Find a drawing, a passage or a moment in a recording without losing the source or its permissions.
Explore the capabilityENGINEERING FOCUS
01Documents, images and recordings
02Access-aware retrieval
03Answer with source locations
Search the information you have.
Knowledge is rarely a tidy folder of text. Useful retrieval may need to understand a table, interpret a diagram or find a passage inside an audio or video recording.
Retrieve across formats.
Combine suitable multimodal embeddings, metadata and text search. Test whether results match the actual question, not just the general topic.
Keep evidence visible.
Carry access rules into retrieval. Show the source and make uncertainty clear when the material is missing, outdated or contradictory.
A possible workflowIllustrative example.
Find the diagram and training-video segment that explain the same maintenance step.
Finding a relevant image is not proof that its contents have been interpreted correctly. Evaluate retrieval and answer quality separately.
A closer look
Good questions.
Straight answers.
Is this different from RAG?
It extends retrieval-augmented generation beyond text-only sources. Preparation, permissions and evaluation still matter.
Can results link to the exact source?
Where source formats permit it, retain page, passage, image or timestamp references. The ingestion pipeline needs to preserve that information.
Technical reference: Google: multimodal embeddings (opens in a new tab)
Keep exploring